1. Field of the Invention
The discovery of monoclonal antibodies created the opportunity to prepare compositions which could bind to a specific polar and spatial organization, referred to as an epitopic site or determinant site. Polyclonal antibodies had previously found a broad spectrum of applications, particularly in the diagnostic area. The heterogeneity of the polyclonal antisera was conceived to provide advantages and disadvantages to the specificity of the antisera. The polyclonal antibodies provided an average response to a particular structure, which could have the cumulative effect of high specificity, high binding constant and high titer. However, monoclonal antibodies could provide a number of unique opportunities with antigenic compositions which have a plurality of determinant sites. By being able to select for a specific determinant site, rather than having a mixture of antibodies capable of recognizing a plurality of determinant sites, new approaches to the detection of a variety of antigens became possible.
For the most part, the use of monoclonal antibodies has been directed to the detection of antigens, macromolecular proteins having a plurality of determinant sites. The potential for using monoclonal antibodies in other situations has not received attention.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Stuart and Porter (1978) Exp. Cell Res. 113, 219-222 describe the production of antibodies to RNA-DNA hybrid duplexes for forming in situ hybrids on polytene chromosomes as an antigenic test system. Frank et al. (1980) Genetics 94, s33-s34 (abstr.) reported the preparation of monoclonal antibodies in progress. Rudkin and Stollar (1977) Nature (London) 265, 472-473 describe polyclonal antibody binding to polytene chromosomes. Stollar (1970) Science 169, 609-611 describes the preparation of rabbit antibodies to poly(rA).poly(dT) hybrids.